Ticino

SUPSI as leading partner in EU-projects

03.08.2018

Modelling consumption and thermal behavior of buildings is an essential task to achieve efficient energy management. Hence is the assessment of heat available in the ground to be used. Both tasks are carried out by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts from Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) within two European projects.

SUPSI has a comprehensive mandate of teaching, research and consulting activities closely linked to the territory in which operates. It is organized in several Departments, Institutes and Laboratories. The Institute of Earth Sciences (IST) and the Institute for Applied Sustainability to the Built Environment (ISAAC) are involved in two European projects: the Cheap GSHPs and GEO4CIVHIC. Both projects are funded by the HORIZON 2020 framework program.

SUPSI is engaged in developing a method for creating maps showing the available energy to be extracted from the underground under state of the art technologies while respecting the environmental constrains. It is also involved in modelling thermal behavior of several types of buildings under different climates. The aim is to get the best possible match between available energy and consumption at European scale.

Project 1: «Cheap-GSHP»
The Cheap-GSHPs project (CHeap and Efficient APplication of reliable Ground Source Heat Exchangers and Pumps) is aimed at reducing costs and increasing the European-wide deployment of closed circuit systems which exploit low temperature geothermal energy. The project focuses on two main aspects. On the one hand, it aims to reduce installation costs by 25-30% through the improvement of existing drilling technologies and through the development of new ones. On the other hand it aims to develop both a Decision Support System (DSS) and modeling tools able to consider all aspects concerning the selection, design, installation and operation of vertical closed circuit systems. Thanks to the results of the project, the final user (e.g. private, public) will be able to choose the type of GSHP-system that is optimal and safe from an economic, environmental and energy point of view and best suits his needs.

The very interdisciplinary consortium built for this project covers all aspects on the matter from materials and design of exchangers, drilling and installation techniques, heat pump development, and building energy performance modelling. Research has been done on nanofluids use and performance as heat carrier, modelling building performance under European scale climatic conditions for traditional double U and coaxial exchangers, thermal properties of geologic material and technical improvements for heat pumps and drilling techniques. Special attention was paid to the application of the new developed technologies to historic buildings with a strong cultural interest, overcoming traditional constraints.

Reference country
Switzerland is seen as reference country for diffusion of heat pumps. It also has a strong clear regulatory and technical framework. The IST developed a method for realization of municipal level thematic maps expressing the energy stored in the underground and the cost needed to extract it to provide energy to specific building types. The method starts modelling energy requirements for several building ranging from residential to administrative under climatic conditions representing all Europe. Then it integrates the soil temperature as a measure of the energy stored in the underground and geological information to evaluate the readiness of extracting it. An algorithm relates the obtained data with altitude and latitude, both parameters influencing temperature and consumption and provides a measure of exchanger length needed to match energy requirements. By using a Geographical Information System (GIS) the algorithm is distributed in space creating the maps for any interest area.

Real and virtual test sites were used to test the results of the method (see picture). These thematic maps express the potential in Euro/Kw considering also environmental constrains. The costs were calculated by including the price of drilling for the calculated exchanger length and the cost of the heat pump for the required power. More information about the Cheap-GSHP project can be found at http://cheap-gshp.eu/

Project 2: (GEO4CIVHIC)
The GEO4CIVHIC-project (Most Easy, Efficient and Low Cost GEOthermal Systems FOR Retrofitting CIVil and HIstoriCal Buildings) started in April 2018. The main objective of the project is to identify and, where missing, develop solutions in drillings (machines and methods), BHE types, heat pumps and different energy-storage technologies, heating and cooling terminals, with specific focus on every type of built environment, civil and historical. The following goal is to generate and demonstrate the easiest to install and cost-effective geothermal energy solutions using and improving existing and new tools. The interdisciplinary consortium is mostly the same of Cheap-GSHP, in order to keep and apply results from the previous to the newest project.

Again, Switzerland is seen as reference country in the contest of proximity of boreholes heat exchangers in urban environments. Switzerland has in fact a long story of low enthalpy geothermal energy research and exploitation, and actually, the ratio between number of perforations and population is extremely high; also the ratio between number of perforations and national surface area is the highest in Europe.

Ticino and its architectural heritage
Canton Ticino is plenty of traditional houses constituting an important architectural heritage to be preserved. The issue of energy consumption in those buildings is a matter to be addressed considering the conservation of built heritage. ISAAC, as leading Swiss partner of this project is involved in modelling and monitoring energy consumption for retrofitted buildings evaluating the applicability of geothermal systems to architectural heritage. The task will be performed mainly through the acquisition and modelling of temperature data and energy consumption in a set of selected case studies.

Since built heritage is often located in urban environment a set of adaptable recommendations based on key regulatory and technical aspects of implementation will be also showed and proposed to manage the thermal interference for high-density perforations. This latter issue is an ongoing problem in Switzerland and the discussion on this matter in still open. Since this project just started, updates and following information will be given on it.

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